Stress and Exercise: Signs Your Body Is Stressed and How Exercise Physiology Can Help

Stress is often thought of as something psychological or emotional,  feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or under pressure. But stress is just as much a physical response.

When stress becomes ongoing, it can affect how your body moves, breathes, and functions. Over time, this can contribute to persistent tension, fatigue, pain, and even changes in pelvic health.

Understanding how stress shows up in the body is the first step toward managing it more effectively.

What Happens in the Body During Stress

When your body perceives stress, it activates the nervous system, specifically the sympathetic nervous system, often known as the “fight or flight” response.

This leads to a series of physiological changes:

• Increased muscle tension

• Faster, more shallow breathing

• Elevated heart rate

• Reduced focus on recovery and digestion

This response is designed to be short-term.

However, when stress is prolonged, the body may spend more time in this heightened state and less time in the parasympathetic (“rest and recover”) state.

Over time, this imbalance can affect multiple systems in the body including musculoskeletal, respiratory, and pelvic health.

Common Physical Signs Your Body Is Holding Onto Stress

1. Ongoing muscle tension

Chronic tightness in the neck, shoulders, jaw, pelvic floor, or lower back is a common sign of prolonged stress. Muscles remain slightly contracted, even at rest.

2. Fatigue with difficulty switching off

You may feel physically tired, but find it difficult to relax or achieve deep, restorative sleep.

3. Shallow or inefficient breathing

Stress often leads to chest-dominant breathing rather than diaphragmatic breathing, which can contribute to tension and reduced oxygen efficiency.

4. Recurring aches and pains

Persistent or recurring discomfort without a clear injury can be linked to increased muscle tension and altered movement patterns.

5. Reduced stress tolerance

The nervous system becomes more sensitive, meaning both physical and emotional stressors feel more intense.

The Link Between Stress, Breathing, and Pelvic Health

An often overlooked area is how stress affects the connection between breathing, the core, and the pelvic floor.

The diaphragm, abdominal muscles, and pelvic floor work together to manage pressure within the body.

When stress alters breathing patterns:

• The diaphragm may not move efficiently

• The pelvic floor may become overactive or tense

• Coordination between these muscle groups can be disrupted

For women, this may contribute to:

• Pelvic pain or tension

• Urinary urgency or leakage

• Pain with intimacy

• A feeling of heaviness or reduced support

Men may also experience pelvic floor dysfunction, including tension, discomfort, or changes in bladder control.

Is Rest Enough to Relieve Stress?

The body adapts to repeated patterns. If stress is ongoing, your body may begin to default to:

• Higher baseline muscle tension

• Shallow breathing patterns

• Protective or guarded movement

Even when stress levels reduce, these patterns may remain. This is why symptoms often persist despite rest alone.

Rest is important, but it’s not always enough on its own.

When your body has been under ongoing stress, it doesn’t just feel tired. It often adapts by developing certain patterns, such as holding more tension in the muscles, breathing more shallowly, or moving in a more guarded way. Over time, these can become your body’s default.

This means that even when you slow down or take a break, your body may still be operating in a more heightened, “switched on” state. You might still feel tight, fatigued, or unable to fully relax. Rest helps reduce overall load, but it doesn’t always address how your body is functioning.

To fully support recovery, the body often needs guidance in how to:

• release built-up tension

• restore more efficient breathing patterns

• move in a way that feels safe and supported again

This is where a more targeted approach such as exercise physiology can play an important role in helping the body shift out of these patterns and recover more effectively over time.

How Exercise Physiology Can Help to Manage Stress

Exercise physiology uses structured, evidence-based movement to help the body function more efficiently. It’s

not about intensity or pushing harder. It’s about restoring balance, improving coordination, and supporting long-term recovery from stress.

As our Exercise Physiologist, Laura Gerber says, “consistency matters more than intensity”.

Chronic stress can affect muscles, breathing patterns, the pelvic floor, and overall energy. Exercise physiology targets these areas safely and effectively.

1. Reduce Muscle Tension

Stress can keep muscles in a constant state of tension especially in the neck, shoulders, back, and pelvic region. Targeted movement and gentle stretching help release this tension and improve how muscles work together.

2. Improve Breathing

Stress often leads to shallow, chest-based breathing, which affects oxygen flow and pelvic floor function. Diaphragmatic breathing exercises restore efficient, natural breathing, support core stability, and help your body relax.

3. Support Pelvic Floor Health

Stress can cause the pelvic floor to stay tense, leading to discomfort, urinary changes, or pain. Exercise physiology focuses on coordination between the diaphragm, core, and pelvic floor, not just strength, improving stability and function.

4. Rebuild Strength and Energy

Fatigue and low endurance are common with ongoing stress. Gradual, guided exercise rebuilds strength and energy safely, helping your body cope with daily demands.

5. Regulate the Nervous System

Stress keeps the body switched ‘on’. Targeted movement and breathing help retrain the nervous system, supporting relaxation, recovery, and reduced tension.

Exercise Physiology in the Hills & Hawkesbury Region

At Women’s Health Hub, we provide exercise physiology in the Hawkesbury, supporting women and men through a

wide range of concerns, including stress-related physical symptoms, pelvic health conditions, return to movement, pregnancy or postpartum recovery, chronic conditions such as PCOS and endometriosis, and sports performance.

Our approach is personalised which is tailored to your body, symptoms, and goals and evidence-based.

We also offer group and duo classes that can be personalised to your body’s needs. These classes let you exercise in a supportive, guided environment while still getting the benefits of a program tailored to your body and goals.

Supporting Your Body, Long-Term

If you’ve been experiencing ongoing tightness, fatigue, pain, or changes in pelvic health that aren’t resolving, it may be time to look beyond rest alone. These are often signs that your body would benefit from a more structured and supportive approach.

Through tailored movement and guidance, exercise physiology can help you reduce discomfort, improve function, and help you feel more in control of your body.You can book in an initial consultation with our Exercise Physiologist, Laura Gerber.

Book A Consultation With Us